Liverpool-born Joe Ainsworth, Story Consultant and BAFTA award-winning screenwriter for Holby City and Series Producer Kate Hall (previously series editor for Channel 4’s Hollyoaks) will join Edge Hill academics including Professor of Film and Television Roger Shannon and nursing lecturer Sharon Roberts. They will be joined by Professor Tim Woolford, Consultant Ear, Nose & Throat Surgeon at the University Department of Otolaryngology (Head & Neck Surgery), Manchester Royal Infirmary.

The event will question whether television’s view of medical issues is in ‘rude health,’ if the two professions of media and health positively interact or negatively conflict and whether the license of fiction and creative representation allow for a wider airing of key health debates.

Holby City is the BBC’s flagship medical series. First screened in 1999, it attracts a weekly audience of five million viewers.

Simon Bolton, Director of ICE said: “In Rude Health – Medical Dramas’ is an exciting new event for Edge Hill. For the first time, it brings together the Postgraduate Medical Institute (PGMI) and Institute for Creative Enterprise (ICE) to provide a stimulating platform for critical and reflective debate.”

Professor Roger Shannon, who will chair the discussion and is Associate Director of ICE, said: “Edge Hill has a strong reputation in both healthcare and media, and this discussion arranged jointly by PGMI and ICE builds on this renown. In this regard it’s a bonus that the University is able to draw on the support of Joe Ainsworth, who has an English degree and an Honorary Doctorate from EHU as well as a University building in his name!”

This event will take place in the Faculty of Health at Edge Hill University. It is free to attend but places must be booked in advance.